Accused teacher 'took pupils on his barge', court told

A former pupil of an ex teacher accused of abusing children has as young as has told jurors he was "overly familiar" with her friend, who she believed was his "favourite".

Graham Brennand, 70, of Calder Avenue, Freckleton, is accused of a string of sexual assaults, physical assaults and one of cruelty against former pupils - some dating back more than 30 years.

He is accused of 29 charges involving 17 girls and two boys at a time when he worked as a teacher and deputy head at an East Lancashire primary school. They span a period between 1974 and 1989, Preston Crown Court was told.

The woman, who can't be named for legal reasons, was a friend of one of the alleged victims.

She said: "Day to day he was a good teacher and really friendly - overly friendly with some. He would be very familiar with come of the girls and the boys didn't get away with what the girls got away with.

"An example would be how he would touch the girls, from my point of view, he would ask me to put pictures up and then he would come behind and lean against the wall right behind me so I was surrounded

"I would look at these girls and think I wanted to be the favourite but when it did happen it didn't feel very nice.

She described how he would 'help' her friend during PE, and was overly familiar.

She added: " In my childlike eyes she was the favourite."

"We'd go on his barge and we'd go up and down the canal and he'd teach us to steer."

She said her friend told her about the abuse as adults, when they bumped into each other years later in around 2005, and confided it had affected her first marriage.